Virus Help!!!

malexous · 04 Jun 2010

wee said:

is only a mirror image of my own.

I believe I misinterpreted your post, therefore, I apologise.

Adrian · 06 Jun 2010

Bconrath said:

So I seem to have found myself with a Virus/program that I can't seem to easily locate. Something one my Laptop is preventing me from opening these network connection listed below.

Windows automatic update
Vuze(Azureus) torrent search engine
Yahoo messenger
Windows Live Messenger
ITunes Store From ITunes app

There Have been other little glitches occurring randomly but nothing that can't be explained be a software glitch or frame slip in my internet.

If anyone has and advice on how to locate and remove the app. that is blocking these internet protocols, it would be a great help.

Bconrath

Welcome to Windows 7 Support.
The issue you describe sounds to be a possible infection from a trojan or hostage virus. Depending when you first suspected the issue the following steps need to be taken, as what ever your existing A/V has failed to respond. My hunch its a trojan called "Antivirus Soft" which quickly starts attacking the registry keys and corrupts youe executables.

Using Windows 7 Restore system feature select a previous dated restore point.
restore to the date you selected.
Reboot in safe mode.
Run your selected antivirus program
Delete/quarantine the virus
Reboot your system

If the above steps were successful then you have a moderately safe system.
My limited experience has been that the recent viruses have bypassed standard A/V programs automatic protection and I urge you to perform a daily scan manually.

Good luck,

Adrian

Greg S · 06 Jun 2010

Corrine said:

wee said:

Dually noted you are correct, but it has a wider use of application in cleaning up. Some things like this are stuff that people have to investigate and not just take one persons=me opinion. Whether you use malwarebytes or any other, the more that any offers is not going to be a hindrance unless your trying to run a live system against another like trying to run MSE with Avast at the same time.

I think we all have our "favorites", for what ever reason..

So true. Lately I've found this combo to be the most effective. Used just again this weekend on a friends older laptop. Symptoms were not being able to boot into normal mode whilst safe mode was a hit or miss in the users account but hit would eventually freeze the laptop. Admin account seemed to always work in safe mode. The first app I ran was Hitman Pro. Hmm, look what HP found, Rootkits, Trojans and various other Malware related items. Can't remember the exact amount but it were very much to say the least. HP required a re-boot to finish cleaning which upon starting up booted me right into normal mode. Once in normal mode, I ran it again with no detections. Next on the list was Malwarebytes. I don't have enough space in this post to say what it found,lol. I'm figuring by now this thing has to be as clean as it can get without a total do over of the OS but thought what the heck, I'll run SuperAntiSpyware and allow it to do it's 15 tracking cookies of dis-content have been found thing. Boy was I wrong. It found over one thousand items of crapola to clean. It found so much that I thought it had frozen the laptop. I wanted to close it out but it wouldn't let me. So, I waited it out with SAS finally asking for re-boot to finish cleaning. It did and I repeated the process of the three mentioned apps. This time all came back with no detections. After that, I ran CrapCleaner which didn't have much to clean. I installed MSE and let it scan overnight which came back with a clean slate. I removed MSE cleanly of the laptop and then installed Avast File and Behavior shields only and allowed it do a full scan which came back clean. Now, I've said all that to say this, AV's in my opinion are useless in this day and time. The best protection one can have now a days is a decent Image/Backups. Next in line to that would be an ISR app such as Eaz-Fix, RollbackRx or Commodo Time Machine. Good advice would be to find a decent Restoration app and use it religiously!

malexous · 06 Jun 2010

Was there an anti-virus installed, Greg S?

The best protection is one's common sense. Sadly, not many possess it.

Greg S · 06 Jun 2010

malexous said:

Was there an anti-virus installed, Greg S?

The best protection is one's common sense. Sadly, not many possess it.

Yes it was. I omitted the common sense part you mention because I thought it was common sense to know that common sense was the best protection,lol.